All organisations such as sporting clubs, the School Council, church groups, community organisations have a book of rules. These rules tell their members about:

• the structure of the organisation
• how the different parts of the organisation work
• what the role or purpose of each part is
• how members should behave and contribute to the successful operation of the organisation
• penalties for people who break the rules
• how to change the rules.

Government works in a similar way. It has a rule book called the constitution. It is a set of rules that tell us how the country or state is governed. The Federal Government and each state and territory government has a constitution.

In Victoria the first Constitution was drafted by members of Victoria's first Legislative Council in 1853-54. It was approved by the British Parliament in 1855 and became law on 23 November 1855, the birth of responsible government in Victoria.

The Parliament of Victoria can change the Victorian Constitution if both houses of parliament agree to the change. This happened in 1975.

In 1975 an important change happened. Until that time our constitution was an Act of the British Parliament. Victoria's constitution was sent to London for approval by the British Parliament in 1855. This was because Victoria was a British colony and the Legislative Council at that time in Victoria was more like a group of advisers to the Governor. In 1975 the Constitution Act made the Victorian constitution an Act of the Parliament of Victoria. We finally owned our constitution.

• Democracy
• Government
• Representative government
• Responsible government
• Self-government
• Structure of responsible government
• Towards responsible government
• The Constitution
• Lucy Bell
• Thomas Henty
• William Barak
• Elias Andrews
• John Chandler
• Frederick Thomas Sargood
• William Foster Stawell
• Acts of Parliament about Voting and becoming an MP
• Voting systems
• Acts relating to land use and care
• Consolidation Acts
• Land Acts in Victoria
• The Chaffey Agreement